Foreign Minister Stubb to visit Egypt, Chad and Ethiopia
Press release 65/2009
27 February, 2009
Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb will visit Egypt, Chad and Ethiopia on 2–4 March. The purpose of the trip is to learn more about African conflict situations and the international community’s efforts to influence them.
In Egypt, Foreign Minister Stubb will participate in the International Gaza Reconstruction Conference, to be held in Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday, 2 March. The purpose of the conference is to discuss the political situation in Gaza and its reconstruction. Finland and the EU, together with other donors, aim to assist Gaza and its reconstruction in a sustainable way, and at the conference they stress, in particular, the importance of aid reaching its destination. The conference will be attended by nearly 50 ministers from many countries, including, among others, American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Finland continues to support the Palestinian territories through bilateral development aid and humanitarian assistance. Finland’s assistance in 2008 was about 10 million euros.
In Chad on Tuesday, 3 March, Foreign Minister Stubb will learn about the EU military crisis management mission in Chad and the Central African Republic, and about the activities of Finnish peacekeepers in eastern Chad. At present, Finland has a little over 60 military personnel participating in the crisis management mission. The EU mission will end as planned on 15 March, when the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) now operating in the area will assume responsibility for the military component of activities as well. Finland is planning to transfer the detachment now part of the EU mission to serve under the UN, and to increase the strength of the detachment to 80 military personnel. Stubb will also meet with Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat of Chad in N’Djamena, the nation’s capital. Admiral Juhani Kaskeala, Commander of the Finnish Defence Forces, will accompany Foreign Minister Stubb at the foreign ministers’ meeting and the meeting with Finnish crisis management forces.
In Ethiopia, Stubb will visit the headquarters of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa. On Wednesday, 4 March he will deliver a speech at the high-level seminar “Mediating Peace in Africa: Securing Conflict Prevention.” Other speakers in addition to Stubb will include President Martti Ahtisaari, Ramtane Lamamra, African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, and several present and former AU leaders and peace mediators. The seminar is arranged in cooperation with the South African-based civil society organisation ACCORD (the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes) and the African Union. It is part of the peace-building cooperation starting this year with the African Union.
Finland has decided to grant 2.9 million euros to the African Union programme for the development of peace mediation activities, to be carried out in 2009–2011.
The Foreign Minister’s Special Representative, Member of Parliament Pekka Haavisto will also take part in the trip.
Additional information: Jori Arvonen, Senior Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, mobile tel. +358 50 553 6117; Press Attaché Juha Kirstilä, mobile tel. +358 40 552 8200; and Director General Teemu Tanner, Department for Africa and the Middle East, mobile tel. +358 40 826 8624